Sunday, 6 February 2011
Funny Thing On The Moon?
I have recently watched Bart Sibrel's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon" (2001), a documentary about how the first landing on the Moon might have been a hoax. Then I also watched the MythBusters episode attempting to falsify such conspiracy claims. The fact that Sibrel provides facts which are falsifiable is at least in his favour. I also believe that some doubt is quite all right about anything, but I have to agree with the makers of MythBusters who claim that one should not jump to conclusions too easily, as there may be several plausible reasons for the same phenomenon. It is also true on the other hand that in natural sciences there is no absolute proof of anything in a mathematical sense, one has to be content with probabilities. Many, including some scientists, often forget about this. There is always some room for doubt, but that itself does not necessarily mean that doubts are true. There are many claims in Sibrel's film, most of which are very technical. I have chosen one that covers the field of photography, as it is likely that most people have some experience with that. I like the experimental approach of MythBusters taken in response to these statements and will post them below.
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The unparalell shadows are interesting. The first thing I would think of is probably multiple lightsources too. But if the moon pictures are really fake and taken in a studio then probably the stupidest thing a photographer can do is using multiple lightsource and so telling everyone who knows something about lighting that 'THIS IS FAKE'. But what we also should keep in mind is this: these pictures are not necessarily lit by multiple lightsource but it still does not prove that they are not fake. About the second picture... it does not look like they used an additional reflector for that one in the first place. It is mainly the suit that is lit but the ladder is in shadow. If there had been a reflector then the ladder and the spaceship should be lit as well. But it is the reflective capability of the suit itself that should also be considered. As for the whole thing... aviation is another thing I find really interesting beside photography and I was given the chance to visit the American museum of aviation in Washington DC in 2010. There they have the equipment on display that was used on the moon and a whole different section for the first moonlanding and also some sample stones from the moon. (I took some pictures of my own there :))) ) It is interesting that the highly informative exhibition does not say a word about the doubts... but most of the visitors seriously did. I don't know what the truth is... the above photography issues are not convincing enough but I do have my doubts...
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